Monday
Monday
Paul in Jerusalem
When we arrived at Jerusalem, the brothers received us warmly. The next day Paul and the rest of us went to see James.
Acts 21:17–18
When Paul and his travel companions arrived in Jerusalem, they went to see James. James was still the recognized leader of the worldwide Jewish Christian community, which now numbered many thousands. In depicting Paul and James face-to-face, each flanked by some supporters, Luke presents his readers with a dramatic situation, fraught with both risk and possibility. For James and Paul were the representative leaders of two Christianities, Jewish and gentile. And during the years since they last met, both movements had grown considerably, under God’s good hand. The confrontation could have been painful. But both men had a conciliatory spirit. Take James first. As Paul gave a detailed report of what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry, there was no murmur of disapproval. They praised God together.
But Paul was also anxious to be conciliatory and showed it in two ways. The first (although for some reason Luke does not mention it until Acts 24:17) was the presentation to the Jewish church of the offerings collected from the Greek churches. Perhaps Paul had already presented this gift privately. He saw it not just as an expression of love for the needy but as a tangible symbol of Jewish-gentile solidarity in the body of Christ. Luke concentrates, however, on the second example of Paul’s conciliatory spirit, namely the positive way in which he responded to the proposal James put to him. Because of the large number of Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, all of whom were zealous for the law, it was important to quash the rumor that was spreading, namely that Paul was teaching Jewish Christians to turn away from Moses and to declare circumcision and law observance unnecessary. (What he should teach gentile converts had been settled at the Council of Jerusalem.) So James proposed that Paul should engage in certain purification rites, not as an obligation, but as a concession to Jewish Christian scruples. Paul took appropriate action immediately.
We can only thank God for the generosity of spirit displayed by both James and Paul. They were already agreed doctrinally (that salvation is by grace in Christ through faith) and ethically (that Christians must obey the moral law); the issue between them concerned culture, ceremony, and tradition.
For further reading: Acts 21:17–26